The sugarbeet is a form of the common beet "Beta vulgaris" which is commercially grown in large quantities for the sugar contained in the root. While dependant upon the particular species and growing conditions, whole natural sugarbeets typically consist of about 75-80 wt-% water, 14-20 wt-% sugar, 2-10 wt-% pectic material and minor amounts of other components such as amino acids, minerals, etc.
To extract the sugar component a sugarbeet is washed with water to remove foreign material, sliced into a plurality of pieces, commonly called cossettes, to increase the surface area, and contacted with water under conditions sufficient to cause a mass transfer of sugar from the sugarbeet cossettes to the water. The resultant products are a commercially valuable sugar containing juice and sugarbeet pulp.
Typically, the sugarbeet pulp is dried and sold as livestock feed. However, recent advances in the processing of sugarbeets has resulted in sugarbeet pulp suitable for use as a high-fiber human dietary food supplement. This new use of sugarbeet pulp requires that the pulp be substantially free from foreign material and has created a need for a system which can efficiently clean sugarbeet pulp so as to render it fit for human consumption.